a christmas giraffe

 Since my friend and I had our Christmas meet-up on Friday, we decided to open our presents there and then to up the festive atmosphere.  It was a good decision, as Dulcie's face on opening her music box was a picture I wouldn't have wanted Bernie to miss!  You'd think she'd just been given the crown jewels!  So sweet :)  This giraffe was part of my handmade gift for baby Scarlett Rose, hence the rose-covered scarlet material.  See what I did there?  Scarlett seemed about as impressed with this as a six-month-old could be.  Hooray!

 This was the item I made from The St Michael Book Of Handicrafts For All The Family that I blogged about the other day.  Here's the giraffe along with her "ancestor" in the book.  I think it's a really nice design (I love the fact it's only got three legs) and it was easy to adapt slightly.  I used ribbons for the tail and made a mane from those ribbon tags that babies always love.  Other than that (and the omission of the eye because it was looking quite busy) I pretty much stuck to the original pattern.  Oh, and I made it a bit smaller than it was supposed to be so that I could fit the pattern on A4 paper.  That made it a nice size for a baby too.

And here's a shot of the ribbon mane in all its flowing glory!

I'm classing this giraffe as an out-and-out success.  It's not perfect, of course, but handmade items aren't meant to be, are they?  And, for once, I made something from my massive collection of vintage craft books, which I'm sure was my new year's resolution for 2012 or something.  Oh well, better late than never!

making like they did in them there olden days

Today I'm (hopefully!) making something from this vintage craft book.  The pattern and instructions are pretty minimal, I'm making a few twists and I don't think I've made anything from this book before, so I hope it turns out OK.  This won't be the first xmas making I've done this week, but since so many people spy on this blog, I can't share any of the finished products yet.  Oh well, something for you all to look forward to on Boxing Day!  Ha!

what dulcie likes

 Standing.  She still doesn't believe she can do it, but can stand independently for ages if she's distracted by something.  Of course, she also loves the camera so was desperately trying to walk towards me as I took this, hence the funny bottom-out position.  She also loves dancing, as evidenced in the triple-generation family dance-off in the kitchen tonight, where she showed she has inherited her father's musical preferences.

Pulling out all her toys.   Just check out the mess in the background of this picture!  She doesn't just make a mess with her toys, though, and is getting more and more pleasure out of actually playing these days.  She has just learned to put together her wooden cat puzzle (and is so proud of herself) and will spend ages playing with her farm and its animals.

 Playing with keys and cruising along sofas/tables.  Keys are Dulcie's favourite thing.  She searches all over the flat for the keys in the top right of this picture and then carries them around all day long, saying, "Keys!" repeatedly.  Dulcie still can't walk (or not more than a couple of steps, anyway) but spends a lot of time wandering around holding onto the furniture and playing peekaboo from behind the couch.

Singing ee-ay-ee-ay-oh and making animal noises.  Here's Dulcie playing with the afore-mentioned farm.  She LOVES Old McDonald and joins in with the ee-ay-ee-ay-ohs, which is what she's doing in this picture. As well as roaring like a lion and trumpeting like an elephant, Dulcie can make most of the farm animal noises.  Cows say, "Boo," and sheep say, "Hu-hu-hu-hu-hu."

Finding out what's in the glittery shoe box.  One of my work friends is having a clear-out in preparation for a house move.  She gave me some hand-me-down clothes for Dulcie in this glittery gold shoe box.  I keep some plastic balls in here now, as well as some random/changeable toys.  Dulcie shuffles over to it pretty much first thing every morning to see what's inside it.

 Trying on my boots.  I don't know what it is about these boots, but they are a bit of a Dulcie magnet.  She needs a bit of help to get them on, mind you, and I'm fairly certain walking in them would be impossible for her.

Phones and other technology.  She is obsessed with any technology she sees the grown-ups using.  I can't phone or email anyone while she's around.  She has an annoying knack of pressing buttons that actually make things happen e.g. opening up and editing the html code of webpages and turning on predictive texting on my mobile.  I can't work out how to turn it off again.  She can even send text messages.  They used to read something along the lines of "lkjasdiuer asjdpoaurlk 349ushdflf" but since she discovered predictive texting, they read things like, "I have sweetens," an actual message that she sent to my friend Lorna.  I think it could be dangerous.  Who knows what nonsensical sense she could send to someone, who would obviously think it was a real message from me.

And so ends my quick round-up of Dulcie's recent favourite activities.

p.s. Don't forget to enter the Girls' Day giveaway!

punto cruz - for you to use

When I was in Aberfeldy with my parents last month, I picked up this ancient and fusty-smelling booklet of patterns from Peru in an antique shop for a bargainous 50p. The colours and some of the images are amazing. I'm guessing the most obvious use for them would be cross-stitch (I think that is what "punto cruz" translates as) but I also think they'd make the most fantastic beading designs. One of the craft books that Marceline very kindly sent me during her great spring clear-out of 2011 had some very good beading instructions, if I remember rightly, so I might give that a try some day, even though it is not on the Craftathon 2011 list. Coincidentally, Marceline has just mentioned on her blog that she's planning to pursue various grid-based projects over the coming months, so you'd probably get a few more ideas of how to use these patterns over on her blog.

Anyway, I'm happy for you to use these designs in your own projects. You should be able to click on the images to see a larger version. Make sure you leave a comment to let me know if you do use them because I'd love to see the finished results! I've divided the images into vaguely themed sections. Enjoy :)

PEOPLE

BORDERS

ER, MISCELLANEOUS

MY FAVOURITE TWO PAGES

family circle gifts to make

Family Circle Gifts To Make

Family Circle (London) 1967

"Toys your children will adore.

Exciting home ideas to copy.

Gay accessories for you and the family."

Thought it was about time I shared another exciting title from my vintage craft book collection. This was quite a good test for my scanner and I think we can safely say...it failed! Not because the images look bad, but because it took me all day to scan the bleedin' things and I'm still short of a few pictures I wanted to include because it kept crashing. Now I'm actually having to type this in my lunch break (can you still call it a lunch break when it's nearly 9pm?) at work. I hate you, new printer/scanner! The Copydex bottle above is just from an advert inside the cover and I thought it was cute. Copydex can apparently be used in every single one of the projects in this book and they didn't mention the fishy smell once. Here's a little montage of some of the interiors feeatured in the book. I think the one on the right is kind of how I want my living room to look. I actually made one of the pictures from the nursery wall panel once. The picture on the left is to illustrate the paper lampshade projects. The other lampshade (for which there is no picture and only a diagram) actually looks like it would be really nice. I might try it one day.
Although the book focuses quite heavily on toys and gifts for children (not pictured here so you will have to take my word for it) it is also full of rather snazzy ladies. Here's another montage of some of the snazziest. I'm sure I've seen the lady in the orange towelling jacket somewhere before...
This woman is not doing a good job of looking like a convincing mother to that little girl, but she is doing a good job of complementing the background with her skin tone and hair colour.
The other side of apron wearing. Seems like you're guaranteed to look cool in any apron from this book.
These little arrangements of crafty materials are peppered throughout the book and I really like them. I might do something with a couple, like transform into a print or collage or embroidery? I really do have to get cracking with craftathon 2011 after all!
Here's another, slightly more macho this time. Could that be a tub of Copydex we spy?
This one is super-arty, especially the spiralling tower made out of the tape measure. I like it.
And I saved the best (or worst?) for last. This, er, woolly creation appears on the very first page of the book with absolutely no explanation. Modern craft books just aren't crazy enough for my liking!

Phew! That was a bit of a whistle-stop tour, but TV won't subtitle itself and my break is almost over. Hopefully the scanner will start behaving itself so I can share another craft book with you soon.

baby favourites

Our friends, Kristy and Alex, are expecting a baby today. Today!

That's not to say he/she will arrive today, but it's still a good excuse to share this hilariously cute (cutely hilarious) book of baby patterns I found in a charity shop last week.

Kristy's lucky I had my baby knitting done before I found this!

I don't think I could have resisted frilling to the max.

That red outfit is my absolute favourite. It looks like something I might have been put in when I was little. If I ever decide to have a baby, I will definitely knit this for them. I don't know if I'd risk making it for someone else, it's probably an acquired taste...

Check out the wallpaper. That's a very cute baby too.

Here's some more fancy wallpaper for you, if you can see it past all the frills and tassles, that is!

Even without real babies in, the pictures are super cute.

Look at the enormous bottom on this one. Aw!

the beautiful crafts book

The Beautiful Crafts Book

Sterling Publishing Company (New York) 1976

You can tell from the contents page (if you hadn't already worked it out from the cover and title!) that this book is going to be pretty special.

These are just a few of the examples of painted glass. Most of the projects in this book are painting related. That's a bit of a shame for me as painting is not one of my skills, many though my skills may be ;) I can still appreciate the ideas though and live in hope that my brush skills may improve with age and experience.

I want this bird table so much. The flowers really remind me of... something (any ideas?) and the roof is a beautiful colour and the bird looks like a fish. Awesome! Plus this garden looks nice and warm. I'm stubbornly refusing to put on the heating just yet and am fairly frozen today, despite the hot water bottle I carry around with me everywhere. I'm considering making a macrame neck strap for it. I'm sure I must have a pattern for a macrame hot water bottle neck strap in one of these books...

How incredible is this puppet?! I could see it making an appearance in the Clangers or something.

Here's a set of dominos made to fit inside a matchbox. Matchboxes and dominos feature heavily in my life these days, so of course I had to include this. We went charity shopping yesterday and found a huge array of domino trophies and medals and a really nice set of dominos. I was tempted to buy them (I get terrible pangs for obvious collections and always want to keep them together) but left them for a bona fide domino player. Hopefully.

Easter eggs, just one of many, many, many decoration ideas. I'm aghast at these eggs. In a good way. I'd go so far as to say that I'm flabbergasted by them. Yes, I am agog.

These are examples of painting on fabric and I love them! Well, I probably don't love the lampshade actually, but the lamp as a whole is good. The notebook with the pram is definite love though.

Painted napkin rings. Lovely. If you like these, I am sure you will love Ellen aka The Night Owl. Unfortunately her shop is closed for a holiday, but check back because she paints the cutest wooden items.

My painted stones have never turned out anything like this. I would like to get back into stone painting though... I have great crafty plans for 2011. I should add stone painting to the list.

I actually want these tea towels for my kitchen, the one on the left especially. They're made using stencils and fabric paints.

Here's some wall art. My own wall art is languishing in a darkened room unfortunately as our new shelves have stolen its spot. I'm determined to find a new location for it though. I am still very proud of it, even after all these years... It was one of the first things I ever blogged about. Look!

Wooden birds in a tree, made from scratch and not just painted.

And finally, wooden boxes painted to be super pretty. Hooray for The Beautiful Crafts Book!

Sorry for that rather whistle-stop tour of such a good book, but I have to get up for work in just over six hours. Ugh. Still kind of looking for my blog mojo, but am hoping I'll find it when I have a week off work (soon!) and then normal blogging service will resume.